The joy of travel

DebS — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:00:03 +0000

I’m in Dallas for the librarians’ conference. On the way, I was stuck in the Denver airport for about an extra hour – Frontier airlines seemed to have lost our pilot, so my plane that was to have taken off at 1:05 didn’t leave until more like 2:30. And why I had to go from Madison WI to Dallas TX by way of Denver is a mystery only Frontier knows the answer to – a symptom of our shrinking airline market – the airlines are all buying each other, so as a consumer, I have less choices of when and how I want to get anywhere. The plane just sat at the gate with its cute little raccoon tail & all. The advantage to the delay is that I got enough work done on my online course so I could send a welcome email to students, telling them a little about what to expect when the course opens on Monday the 23rd.

And I got to do nature photography of the birds that live on gate A30 in the Denver airport.

I rode the train into Dallas, which took about 2 hours – 2 buses from the airport to the train station, and then the train ride itself – but when I stepped off at the final station, I could see my hotel. When I got to the hotel lobby, the line to get checked in was ridiculous, so I left my bags with the bellman, and went for a drink. Even that was little difficult – had to go to the wine bar in the chop house, because the sports bar was too full. And when I opened my credit card wallet to pay for the wine, one of my cards was missing. After some minor panic, I figured out that I used that card to pay my bag fee when I checked in for my flight when I was still in PJs at home, and eventually Mark found the card in the pocket of my sweatshirt, that was hanging on the bathroom door, safe at home.

I did a little searching for pizza, but the better sounding places didn’t deliver, so I went with the bellman’s suggestion – and got a roasted corn pizza and an iceberg lettuce salad for about $15 – and 2 room service beers for another $16. And watched The Sting on TV. Pretty standard for a first-night-at-conference hotel night, except usually I’m with Mark.

This morning I had to get up 15 minutes early to shave my legs – it’s too warm in Texas for leggings or tights. And I did my Rodney Yee a.m. yoga DVD, too. I found the closet Starbucks – subterranean, in a shopping mall under a big bank building – 2 ways to get there – from the bank plaza or enter the parking ramp of another building across the street. And I took pictures of the leftover giant Christmas tree ornaments that are still decorating the lawn outside my hotel – sitting on brown sod.

Racoon on plane wing

One of the birds on A30 in DIA (Denver Int'l Airport)

Group shot of the birds in A30

Platform waiting for the train to Dallas - in the middle of nowhere

Wine bar in the Dallas Omni hotel

Giant Christmas Balls

Giant Balls from above

In Detroit

DebS — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:46:59 +0000

Grey & rainy for our 2 hour layover in Detroit. I’m on 1st shift watching bags while Mark & Ethan cruise around. I get to go next. I want a beer and the Sunday NYT – I left my paid-for copy on the kitchen counter instead of getting it into my bag to bring along. Funny, the A concourse monorail just passed over and it made a breeze.

posted from my iPhone

Our plane to London, waiting on the wet tarmac in Detroit

Deb's Lunch ... and dinner and breakfast too » airports

The joy of travel

In Detroit